Jordan Spieth: I want to be the world's best golfer

Rory's got four majors - that's something I can only dream of says Masters champ

Phil Casey
– 14 April 2015 03:00 AM

Defending champion Bubba Watson of the U.S. (rear) puts the traditional green jacket on compatriot Jordan Spieth after Spieth won the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia April 12, 2015

It is a measure of how far Jordan Spieth has come in such a short space of time that he was thinking about where his former college team-mates were playing as he began his final round of the Masters.

Spieth dropped out of the University of Texas after his first year, turning professional in December 2012 without having playing rights on any major tour.

Less than two and a half years later, the 21-year-old was slipping on the green jacket at Augusta National while his former colleagues were competing in Pasatiempo, California.

"Michael (Greller, his caddie) and I were joking on the first tee," Spieth recalled. "He said, 'Aren't you glad you are not at Pasatiempo ri ght now? Face it, aren't you glad you're here instead of there?'

"That kind of sums it up. To have left school and took a chance, and everything that happened in 2013, to have the opportunity to win the Masters last year, which then allowed me to win this year. It's all run together. It all happened quickly. Sometimes it feels like a long time ago and sometimes it feels like yesterday."

INSTANT SUCCESS

Spieth, the only player apart from Tiger Woods to have won the US junior amateur title more than once, enjoyed instant success after turning pro, finishing seventh, fourth and second in his first three events on the second-tier Web.com Tour.

He then finished seventh in the Tampa Bay Championship before winning the John Deere Classic two weeks before his 20th birthday, thereby becoming the first teenage winner on the PGA Tour since 1931.

His first appearance in the Masters saw him threaten to become the youngest ever champion when he led by two shots after seven holes of the final round before finishing second behind Bubba Watson, while he was unbeaten alongside Patrick Reed in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles before losing a three-hole lead with nine to play to Graeme McDowell in the singles.

Having come into the Masters on the back of finishing first, second and second in his previous three events, Spieth was one of the favourites at Augusta and duly delivered, becoming the first player ever to reach 19 under par and only a bogey on the 18th prevented him from adding the outright 72-hole scoring record to the 36 and 54-hole records he set on Friday and Saturday.

"It was the ultimate goal in my golfing life when I was a kid," Spieth said. "I did not expect to get it done at 21. It's time to get excited about following Bubba as a two-time champion.

"But the ultimate goal that I have mentioned I think each week is try to become the number one player in the world. I'm still behind so I'm still chasing that goal. It's going to be very difficult, but to be a large step closer is huge."

Spieth's win took him to second in the world rankings behind Rory McIlroy and much has been made about a possible rivalry between the pair.

"As far as (a rivalry) with Rory, he's got four majors. That's something I can still only dream about," Spieth added. "I'll never hit it as far as he does and I have to make up for that somewhere else. He's an unbelievably nice guy, carries that world number one with class.

"I don't know as far as a rivalry right now. I look forward to getting in the heat of the moment with him a couple times in the near future and see if we can battle it out and test our games."

Next up for Spieth in terms of major championships will be the US Open at Chambers Bay, before the British Open at St Andrews, a course Spieth played before the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen.